Devices could help improve mobile phone performance

According to a statement, the devices are designed to ease congestion over the airwaves to improve the performance of mobile phones and other portable devices.

‘There is not enough radio spectrum to account for everybody’s handheld portable device,’ said Jeffrey Rhoads, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.

The overcrowding results in dropped calls, busy signals, degraded call quality and slower downloads. To counter the problem, industry is trying to build systems that operate with more sharply defined channels so that more of them can fit within the available bandwidth.

‘To do that you need more precise filters for cell phones and other radio devices — systems that reject noise and allow signals only near a given frequency to pass,’ said Saeed Mohammadi, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering who is working with Rhoads, doctoral student Hossein Pajouhi and other researchers.

The Purdue team has created nanoelectromechanical resonators that contain a tiny beam of silicon that vibrates when voltage is applied. Researchers have shown that the new devices are produced with a nearly 100 per cent yield, meaning nearly all of the devices created on silicon wafers were found to function properly.